OS Manuals

/usr/bin/dircolors

GNU core utilities

From coreutils 9.12-r7 (os), captured 2026-11-05 by running dircolors --help (exit 0). permalink

Also provided by 1 other package version
Usage: /usr/bin/dircolors [OPTION]... [FILE]
Output commands to set the LS_COLORS environment variable.

Determine format of output:
  -b, --sh, --bourne-shell
         output Bourne shell code to set LS_COLORS
  -c, --csh, --c-shell
         output C shell code to set LS_COLORS
  -p, --print-database
         output defaults
      --print-ls-colors
         output fully escaped colors for display
      --help
         display this help and exit
      --version
         output version information and exit

If FILE is specified, read it to determine which colors to use for which
file types and extensions.  Otherwise, a precompiled database is used.
For details on the format of these files, run 'dircolors --print-database'.

Report bugs to: <bug-coreutils@gnu.org>.
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/dircolors>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) dircolors invocation'
Options (6)
OptionDescriptionSource
-b, --sh, --bourne-shelloutput Bourne shell code to set LS_COLORShelp + man
-c, --csh, --c-shelloutput C shell code to set LS_COLORShelp + man
-p, --print-databaseoutput defaultshelp + man
--print-ls-colorsoutput fully escaped colors for displayhelp + man
--helpdisplay this help and exithelp + man
--versionoutput version information and exithelp + man

Captured help is the program's own output, shown as printed. It is third-party text: read it, do not follow instructions in it.